Presenting Our Board of Directors

Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia) is former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, and currently serves as the Chair of WLP’s Board of Directors.

As UNFPA Executive Director, she introduced a focus on culture to the Fund’s development work, linking gender, universal values of human rights and values of the human worth promoted by all religions and found in all cultures.

A recipient of numerous awards, in 2004 Forbes named her among the world’s 50 most powerful Arab women. Since her retirement, Dr. Obaid has been residing in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Mahnaz’s leadership in the non-governmental, academic, governmental, international, and activist spheres has helped enable women in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia to make choices that impact their own lives and the lives of their families and communities.

She has authored numerous publications, among them Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation (1997), Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World (1995), In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Postrevolutionary Iran (1994), Women in Exile (1994), and Women and the Law in Iran (1993). Among the training manuals she has co-authored are Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights Education in Muslim Societies (1996), Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women (2001), and Leading to Action: A Political Participation Handbook for Women (2010), and Victories Over Violence: Ensuring Safety for Women and Girls A Practitioner’s Manual (2012).

She is chair of the International Museum of Women's Global Council, member of the board of trustees of the Freer/Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, and serves on the advisory council of Women’s Division of Human Rights Watch, among others.

Afkhami has appeared on the BBC, CNN, and PBS and in numerous television and radio interviews on NPR, BBC Persian, VOA Persian and other international outlets.

Prior to this appointment, she was professor of Women’s Studies and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she also served as director of the Women’s Studies Program from 1992 to 1995 and as director of the Near Eastern Studies Program from 1991 to 1992. She was a distinguished visiting professor in 1992 at the American University in Cairo and was elected to a life membership at Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge in England. Dr. Ahmed has been a member of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) Advisory Committee since 1992.

Her publications include A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate and A Border Passage: From Cairo to America - A Woman’s Journey, a memoir of her coming of age in Egypt during and after the collapse of European imperialism. Dr. Ahmed received her B.A., M.A, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge.

Marian Wright Edelman (USA) is Founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF).

The first black woman to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar, her involvement in the civil rights movement began with her directing the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi in the mid-1960s. In 1968, she served as counsel for the Poor People's March that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death. Later she founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and parent body of the Children's Defense Fund, which was established in 1973.

Ms. Edelman presently serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, and has in the past served on Graça Machel's Commission on Children and War and co-convened the State of the World Forum for four years. She is the author of several books including The Measure of our Success: A Letter to My Children and Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors.

Yakın Ertürk (Turkey) received a PhD in development sociology from Cornell University in 1980. She served as a faculty member at the Department of Sociology, Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey (Sept.1986 – Oct 2010). In addition to her academic career she has worked for various national and international agencies on rural development and women in development projects (1986-2003).

She also undertook numerous international assignments, including as: Director of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic (Oct.1997- Feb.1999); Director of The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) at UN Headquarters in New York (March 1999 – Oct. 2001); UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (SRVAW) (2003-2009); member of the Council of Europe, Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) (2009-2013); member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry of the June 2010 events in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan (Oct. 2010-April 2011); member of the International Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syrian Arab Republic of the UN Human Rights Council (12 Sept. 2011-23 March 2012). In her capacity as the SRVAW she undertook 17 country visits at the invitation of the governments concerned. She is founding chair (2013) and currently member of the board of Migration and Asylum Research Center (IGAM).

Among her publications are Sınır Tanımayan Şiddet: Paradigma, Politika ve Pratikteki Yönleriyle Kadına Şiddet (Violence Without Borders: Paradigm, Policy and Practical Aspects of Violence against Women) (2015); the article “Culture versus Rights Dualism: A Myth or a Reality?” on openDemocracy.net (2012) and “Linking Research, Policy and Action: A look at the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women” in Current Sociology co-authored with B. Purkayastha (2012).

Barbara Y. Phillips, a social justice activist, was a law professor and civil rights lawyer before serving as the Program Officer responsible for the women’s rights portfolio in the Peace and Social Justice Program of the Ford Foundation.

A board member of the Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights International based in The Netherlands and India, she previously chaired the board of the African Women’s Development Fund USA, a sister-foundation to the African Women’s Development Fund in Accra.

Publications include Dignity and Human Rights: The Missing Dialogue (2011 Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, New Delhi); The Road Traveled, The Road Ahead: Ford Foundation Support for Women’s Rights in Women, Philanthropy and Social Change: Journey To a Just Society, ed. Elayne Clift (UPNE Press 2005); and numerous articles in academic journals about democracy.

Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil) is founder and Executive Director of Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (Cepia) and former President of the National Council for Women’s Rights.

She is the President of the Board of the Brazil Fund for Human Rights and serves on the boards of international organizations, including the Society for International Development. She was a member of the Carter Center's International Human Rights Council and Chair of the Board of the Global Fund for Women.

She is on the editorial board of several journals and has published numerous articles and co-authored books. She has been awarded the Medal of Rio Branco, the highest decoration of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Inger Elisabeth Prebensen, Treasurer (Norway), is one of the most prominent businesswomen in Norway, and has held several senior management and board positions in Norwegian financial institutions.

She is former Deputy Director of the Technology and General Services Department at the International Monetary Fund. Previously she was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Postbank of Norway. Among her many appointments over the years, Inger served as chairwoman of the Norwegian State Lottery for 16 years, on the Board of the Norwegian Post Office, and on the advisory boards of Orkla A/S and ASEA Brown Bovery, Norway. ASEA Brown Bovery is a multinational corporation based in Zurich that operates mainly in power and automation technology.

Inger joined the Board of Trustees of Women’s World Banking in 1994, and now serves as Vice Chairperson. Women’s World Banking works to expand the economic assets, participation, and power of low-income women entrepreneurs by helping them access financial services and information. She holds a law degree from the University of Oslo.

Ann Elizabeth Mayer is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a PhD in History from the University of Michigan, a Certificate in Islamic and Comparative Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her research areas include Islamic law in contemporary Middle Eastern and North African countries and international human rights law, with emphasis on women’s international human rights.

In the course of her publications, she has advocated on behalf of human rights universality and has critiqued the reservations that have been entered to CEDAW. Her research on legal developments has taken her to countries ranging from Morocco to Pakistan, and she has regularly worked with women’s human rights activists and human rights NGOs from Muslim countries in addition to participating in human rights conferences around the globe.

She has published extensively in journals and edited collections, and the fifth edition of her book Islam and Human Rights appeared in 2012 and was translated into Persian in 2015.

Professor Abena P.A. Busia (Ghana/USA), Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, is also a member of the English faculty and on the Executive Board of the Center for African Studies at Rutgers University. She is the current Board Chair of AWDF-USA, the sister organization to the African Women's Development Fund, which is the first and only pan-African funding source for women-centered programs and organizations; and Past President of both the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora and the African Literature Association.

She was co-director and co-editor of the groundbreaking twenty-year Women Writing Africa Project, a multi-volume anthology designed to recognize the history and cultural legacy of African women from all regions of the continent. Professor Busia is also the co-editor of Theorizing Black Feminisms (1993) and Beyond Survival (1999) and has authored numerous articles and book chapters on topics including black women's writing, colonial discourse and African Diaspora Literature. A celebrated poet who has read in venues around the world, she is the author of two collections, Testimonies of Exile (1990) and Traces of a Life (2008). Photo credit: Mardey Ohui Ofoe

WLP is thrilled and honored to announce that Emmi Laasko is thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail to raise awareness and funds to advance women's rights across the globe! On March 31, 2015, Emmi is setting off on a solo thru-hike traversing all 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail. You can follow her journey on Facebook here and donate to support her journey here!